Pastor Tunde Bakare: The Nigerian Vice-President who never was

Politics, they say, is a “dirty game.” Thus, clergymen have been looked at suspiciously if they ever dared to contemplate delving into the mucky waters of Nigerian politics. Well, I wouldn’t blame anyone with this viewpoint.

Nigerian politics is, not just dirty, but bloody, violent and characterized by mayhem. It’s a madhouse really. Only the vilest of vile men have been known to have their heads above water while swimming this blood river.

Today, younglings will point to Pastor Yemi Osibanjo as the clergyman to have delved into politics. He was, after all, Vice-President to President Muhammadu Buhari, so, he seems like the perfect example.

However, before he, there was the charismatic Pastor Chris Okotie running for the post of President on the platform of Fresh Party. In biblical translations, Okotie was the John the Baptist who cleared the path and helped change the narrative that Pastors can and should be able to run for political office to make a change.

Next came Pastor Tunde Bakare of the ‘Latter Rain Assembly.’ Unlike Pastor Okotie, he was the running mate to ex-military man, Muhammadu Buhari. This was long before Osibanjo even came into the picture.

Seeing Bakare celebrate his birthday this week brought back feelings of nostalgia. I remember his political run and wondered, what could have been if politics wasn’t as crooked as it is in Nigeria. Maybe, just maybe, he could have wound up as President, who knows? I smiled at his birthday pictures and heaved a sigh.

Back then, it was the National Conscience Party (NCP) that provided the platform on which Buhari ran for President. For years on years, he kept probing and knocking on the door which was never opened up to him, at least, not with the lowly NCP—a tiny party with no structure.

I know: “No structure” reminds you of today’s Labour Party (LP) and how they proved that assertion wrong. However, the times back then were different. NCP was no LP. Where LP enjoyed the brute force of a new generation of young ones and the switched loyalty of disgruntled older citizens, the NCP could only rely on the presence of Buhari once being a Head of State and even that title wasn’t altogether popular.

He and his running mate had a mountain to climb to secure the win to take them to Aso Rock. This was no ordinary mountain to climb, they soon found out.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), back then, was at the height of its power. They produced successive Presidents and ruled with an iron fist. If you wanted a guarantee of victory at the polls, your best berth was to run on the platform of the PDP. Anything short and you were instantly marginalized. That was the political landscape then, a privilege the PDP no longer enjoy at the summit today.

Now, while all this power play was going on, there was another political force sweeping through the West like Gayle’s force. I speak of the Action Congress (AC) now known as the All Progressives Congress (PC). Its propeller was the mystic character of Bola Tinubu (now President of Nigeria). While PDP enjoyed the Federal, Lagos, the central hub of all things commerce and the beating heart of the country, was ruled by the AC.

Soon, the AC, having consolidated its power in Lagos, began an expansion drive so revolutionary, that it ended with them landing a knockout punch to the PDP in the latter rounds of their Political Heavyweight fight with the PDP. It all began with a sweep of the Western states comprising of Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and others, a sweep they enjoyed some success (not total, though).

While all this was going on, the crack began to develop in the armoury of the PDP. It appeared all was not smooth sailing for the PDP. In many of their stronghold states, like Edo, their rule was pathetic and people became disgruntled. At the Federal, however, they had Musa Yar’adua running things and he was quite efficient, so, this ensured they remained intact at the summit.

However, when Yar’adua died and his Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, took over, the cracks in the wall began to stretch even more. To be honest, Goodluck had no good luck in politics at this level and never looked like having the steel to consolidate the PDP’s supremacy further.

He appeared too cool for a President and too unassuming. Soon, it appeared he had no control over his cabinet as every man did as he pleased, looting of public funds by his Minister and subordinates was carried out with reckless abandon. The groaning by everyday Nigerians worsened and threatened to deafen the ears of the listening ruling party.

Hold on. Let’s do a rewind and go some years back—before Yar’adua passed on. In fact, I speak of a time before he was elected President. The classified information had us know that there was a top-level secret meeting conducted by the ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo, PDP Chieftains and Jagaban himself, Bola Tinubu, on a private jet way up in the sky.

What was the agenda? How Tinubu must stay his hand and allow Musa to enjoy his 8yrs of leadership by means of victory at the polls. After that, the APC would be given leave to rule. Hmm. It seemed like a compromise that served all parties well, and, while the existence of such a meeting will never be admitted by the powers that be, I and many other credible sources believe it did take place.

Thus, when Jonathan began to shake and quake under the pressure of leadership, the time seemed right. To actualize their plan, the Action Congress had to evolve and it did so by amalgamating itself with 6 other parties to become what is now referred to as the ‘All Progressives Congress’ (APC). With this new force, they were quite convinced they could now take on the powerhouse, PDP, and usurp their power.

Not quite Eldorado, yet. The new APC needed a face to position as its flagbearer. This face had to be someone with clout. It had to be a strong name with a fierce presence. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing, Muhammadu Buhari. The marriage was a perfect match and the latter now had a platform with the structure to complement his stature. The stage was set.

Well, in every game of chess, after all the scheming and plotting is done, one person will smile, while the other will walk away with a frown on his face. The frowning one here was our dear Pastor Bakare. By insistence, Tinubu installed his boy, Osibanjo, as the running mate for Buhari. Jagaban had no liking for Bakare and off he went into political oblivion, never to be seen again. It was a swift end to what, once looked like a promising political rise that could have had a very sweet ending.

We know the rest of the story: The APC stopped Jonathan from enjoying a second term, Buhari became President and Osibanjo, rather than Tunde Bakare, became Vice-President. For Bakare, this must have been a bitter pill to swallow. He couldn’t quite blame his friend, Buhari. The military man needed to achieve his dream of becoming President and, if making Bakare the collateral damage on the way to achieving that was going to be the solution, then, so be it and so was it.

Today, we remember Osibanjo as the clergyman who excelled in politics against all odds and against the narrative, but, let us take a moment to realize that it could very well have been Bakare enjoying that position if politics wasn’t politics. The latter rains on Bakare in his political career weren’t the kind of rain he had hoped for. This rain flooded him out of his dream of becoming Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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